1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a board game that is designed to convey instruction and information about the disease of diabetes mellitus as well as to provide entertainment. More specifically, the board game of the invention is designed to educate the players as to the relationship between the disease and diet, medications, side effects, etc., employing questions and answers and role playing simulation as a teaching technique.
2. Description of the Related Art
Board games have been developed for various educational purposes. Board games have been developed for educating adults concerning general nutrition (salt, sugar, cholesterol, etc.) information (U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,721 issued to McKay Aug. 16,1983) and exercise and diet (U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,645 issued to Goodman et al., Nov. 5, 1991). A nutrition and exercise game aimed a three to six year old children is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,9863,757 issued to Mueller Jan. 22, 1991.
An educational game to teach general preventive heath care is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,309 issued to Joel on Jan. 1, 1993. A board game to provide education on the risk of AIDS is described in U.K. Patent 2,215,222 issued Sep. 20, 1989 to McCorquodale, et al. A board game to test general knowledge is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,805 issued Jan. 15, 1991 to Medlock. A board game to provide education on the meaning and spelling of words is described in U.K. Patent 2,229,930 issued to Bescoby. A motorized spinner with switches capable of being operated by various body parts to make board games accessible to the handicapped is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,295 issued Dec. 12, 1995 to Demshuk.
None of the foregoing inventions is seen to provide education on the diet of the diabetic, medications for the diabetic, side effects, and various other aspects of the disease. None of the foregoing inventions is seen to incorporate role playing or simulation of the various aspects of a disease into the format of a board game as a method of reinforcing the teachings on the disease.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a diabetes mellitus game solving the aforementioned problems is desired.